Super Bowl Ad Winners: Bud Light, Amazon

NEW YORK (AP) — This year some of the Super Bowl ads that grabbed the greatest buzz were surprises, like Bud Light’s “Game of Thrones” teaser. Other crowd-pleasers focused on humor, like Amazon’s take on celebrity product testers.

While the New England Patriots bested the L.A. Rams on Sunday in Atlanta during Super Bowl 53, brands were also winning and losing off the field. Some spots, like Google’s ad about its translation service, charmed many viewers. But others like Mint Mobile’s ad about “chunky milk” fell flat.

BEST

Amazon

The Amazon ad was an early crowd pleaser when it was released well ahead of the game. Harrison Ford, Forest Whitaker and other celebrities test out rejected Amazon products that feature its Alexa digital assistant, such as a talking electric toothbrush and a dog collar.

Bud Light

Bud Light’s crossover with Game of Thrones was a hit because it came as such a surprise. What started out as the “Bud Knight” in a jousting tournament morphs into a promo for the next “Game of Thrones” season.

“It was somewhat confusing at first,” said Mark DiMassimo, chief of ad agency DiMassimo Goldstein. “But it was super engaging and fun and surprising.”

Stella Artois

To tout its partnership with Water.org, which helps provide clean water to the developing world, the beer maker shows two 1990s icons giving up their signature drinks for a philanthropy-supporting brew. “The Dude” — a Jeff Bridges character from “The Big Lebowski” —forgoes his White Russian, while Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw from “Sex and the City” eschews her cosmopolitan. The 1990s nostalgia was a hit with viewers.

Hulu

Hulu kicked off the evening’s surprises during the first break with an ad that started out like Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign ad “Morning in America.” But it was soon revealed to be a teaser for the next season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” ”Wake up America, morning’s over,” a voiceover stated.

“It was a great misdirect and great placement,” DiMassimo said.

Google

An ad promoting its Google Translate service pointed out that although “words can hurt and sometimes divide,” the most translated words in the world are “How are you,” ”Thank you” and “I love you.”

Kim Whitler, marketing professor at the University of Virginia, said the ad was an example of how the night’s “most powerful ads focused on unity, positivity and commonality.”

Microsoft

Another heart-tugger was Microsoft’s ad showing a disabled child talking excitedly about the fun he had using an adaptive Xbox controller designed for players with mobility limitations.


“It combined true emotion, great storytelling, and relevant product innovation with an insight about their category (gaming) as a great equalizer,” DiMassimo said.

WORST

Mint Mobile

The wireless provider was trying to stand out from larger rivals Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. But the “gross-out” route may not have been the way to do it.

The ad compares Mint Mobile’s $20-a-month wireless plan with “chunky milk,” then it shows a fake ad with a family drinking the unappetizing beverage. A mint-colored cartoon fox says the milk is “not right,” but Mint Mobile’s plan “is right.”

“The ad could be confusing. People might just remember that Mint’s pricing is ‘not right,'” said Northwestern University marketing professor Tim Calkins.

Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines created a trailer for a six-minute short directed by Ridley Scott, known for directing Apple’s iconic “1984” ad. It was the storied director’s first return to the Super Bowl in decades. But some viewers took to Twitter to express confusion over what exactly the ad was trying to promote.

source: usa.inquirer.net

Offbeat humor, upbeat messages dominate Super Bowl 50 ads

NEW YORK— From a strange creature called “Puppymonkeybaby” to a tear-inducing Audi ad, Super Bowl ads ran the gamut this year from offbeat humor to heartfelt messages.

On advertising’s biggest night, Chrysler celebrated Jeep with an ad filled featuring black-and-white portraits of veterans, kids and pop icons. In Audi’s spot, a depressed aging astronaut remembers his joy for life by driving an Audi sports car with his son. And in a quirky Doritos ad, a fetus in a sonogram appears to rocket out of the womb to chase a bag of chips the mother angrily tossed away.

The goal for advertisers: to stand out and win over the 114 million-plus people watching the big game on Super Bowl Sunday, much the way the Denver Broncos triumphed over the Carolina Panthers. With ads costing a record $5 million for 30 seconds this year, the stakes are high to stand out from the 40-plus advertisers and be remembered.

In general, advertisers played it safe with universally liked celebrities such as Anthony Hopkins (TurboTax) and Ryan Reynolds (Hyundai), cute animals and pro-America themes.

“It’s been a pretty safe night,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at advertising agency MRY. “There’s relatively little going over the top.”

Offbeat humor reigned with a creature called “Puppymonkeybaby” — pretty much exactly what it sounds like — in an ad for Mountain Dew’s Kickstart. The ad sought to show that three great things go together, since Kickstart combines Mountain Dew, juice and caffeine.

“It’s on my list of the weirdest ad of the night, but it’s very catchy and people will be talking about it,” said Kelly O’Keefe, a marketing professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Heartfelt messages were in abundance too. SunTrust’s ad urged people to take a breath and feel better about their financial health. BMW’s Mini urged people to “defy labels.”

Most ads managed to avoid the somber tone struck last year, when an ad for Nationwide about preventable household accidents bummed out many in the audience.

There were a couple of misfires. Two pharmaceutical ads highlighted unappealing digestive conditions. One promoted an anti-diarrhea medication Xifaxan with a small-intestines mascot taking a seat at the Super Bowl. Another sought to raise awareness about “opioid-induced constipation.”

“This just isn’t a topic that people want to hear about during a Super Bowl,” said Villanova University marketing professor Charles Taylor.

Offbeat humor

Mountain Dew’s ad might have been the weirdest ad of the night, but Doritos’ ad also seemed likely to divide viewers. The spot showed a couple during a sonogram. When the mother throws away a bag of Doritos, the fetus seems to zoom after it, to the consternation of all present.

“It caught you a little off guard, but it fit the brand,” said O’Keefe.

Some Super Bowl watchers agreed. Brian Kearney, from Morris County, New Jersey, was watching the game with about 15 people and said the ad was a hit with his friends.

“I thought it was hysterical, we all cracked up,” Kearney said.

Other ads with offbeat humor: Bud Light featured Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen traveling around America promoting “The Bud Light Party.” A Shock Top ad showed actor T.J. Miller trading insults with the brewery’s talking orange wedge mascot. And the outdoor goods-and-clothing company Marmot showed a man palling around with an actual marmot he appears to be falling for, all to illustrate falling in love with the outdoors.

Money Money Money

Eight years after the financial meltdown, financial companies are feeling more comfortable promoting their products and services. Six advertised in the big game, including including SunTrust Banks, PayPal, Quicken Loans, Intuit brand and Intuit’s TurboTax and Social Finance Inc.

Most promoted optimistic messages about money. TurboTax, for instance, enlisted Anthony Hopkins to get out the message that you can file your taxes for free with TurboTax. PayPal’s music-video style ad asked people to embrace “New Money.”

“We’re officially over the mourning of 2008 (financial crisis),” said Mediapost columnist Barbara Lippert.

Cinematic ads

Some advertisers created mini-movies. Toyota went long with a 90-second ad depicting bank robbers who use a Prius 4 to escape from police. LG enlisted Liam Neeson in a futuristic spot showing off LG’s new OLED 4K TV. Hyundai’s “The Chase” ad, echoed “The Revenant,” showing people escaping grizzly bears by using Hyundai’s remote start feature.

“Super Bowl advertisers are sticking with light themes,” said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. “Last year we had serious ads about fathers and mortality. This year the ads are funny and creative.” TVJ

source: business.inquirer.net

Facebook to sell real-time Super Bowl ads, taking on Twitter

This Super Bowl Facebook is taking a page from Twitter's playbook, for the first time during a football championship selling ads that target people based on what they are talking about in real time.

These include video ads that will play automatically on Facebook's newsfeed, triggered by key words that members mention in their posts as they watch the American football game on Feb. 1.

Smartphones and tablets provide a second screen for the Super Bowl's 100 million television viewers to comment about the game as it proceeds, giving advertisers a more precise way to target messages.

Twitter is the leader in this arena that other social media networks are seeking to emulate. Mondelez International's Oreo sent out clever tweets when the lights went out during the Super Bowl in 2013, a stunt considered to be a marketing coup.

"Twitter has owned the mantel of being a real-time platform but the sophistication of Facebook's ad targeting is unparalleled," said Noah Mallin, head of social for north America at MEC, a media buying agency that is part of WPP.

"That is a big change."

At last year's Super Bowl, marketers on Facebook could target ads to segments of members based on their likes, profiles and demographic information. Facebook has introduced real-time targeting features since then, and this year the social network, with 155 million daily users in the United States and Canada, will customize audience clusters that advertisers can target in real time during the game.

Maura Tuohy, head of social media at the marketing agency Eleven Inc, said Facebook had to work hard to dispel the notion that people do not use the network while watching live tent pole events. "People are talking about these shows" on Facebook, she said.

For example, Toyota Motor Corp in the past had turned to social media to amplify its creative TV commercials running in the Super Bowl. Now, the Japanese automaker is making commercials specially for social media.

Dionne Colvin-Lovely, director of traditional and emerging media at Toyota, said the automaker is running two commercials during the Super Bowl but has turned to digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Inc's YouTube and Hulu to generate a conversation around car buying.

"There is a lot more fragmentation," Colvin-Lovely said. "TV is an important media; it's not as dominant. We need to make sure we have a strong presence online and in mobile. It's more complicated now."

WAR-ROOMS

Twitter is staffing "war rooms" of 13 advertisers for the Super Bowl, including PepsiCo and Anheuser Busch - triple the number of companies that worked directly with Twitter for last year's big game.

Staffers at the 13 companies will monitor social networks during the game and pump out videos, tweets and graphical ads. Some companies will have lawyers on hand to approve the spots.

A growing number of big brand advertisers want to create "unplanned" social ads for the Super Bowl, said Twitter Director of U.S. Brand Strategy Ross Hoffman.

Twitter and Facebook are hoping that by executing memorable real-time ads with a more precise way to reach consumers will be an additional tool in their long-time efforts to grab a bigger slice of the estimated $66 billion television advertising pie.

Many marketers are also turning to digital platforms, including YouTube.

While many agencies executives said social networks do not necessarily charge more for ads during tent pole events, total spending rises as advertisers target more people.

This year, NBC is charging a record $4.5 million on average for a 30-second commercial. So far the network, a division of Comcast Corp, has sold 95 percent of the game's inventory.

When the $5 million to $10 million cost to produce a TV commercial is factored in, digital advertising looks even more attractive.

"It's a much more complicated ecosystem than 2 years ago," said Winston Binch, partner, chief digital officer Deutsch North America. His firm created the iconic "The Force" Super Bowl TV ad featuring a little kid dressed up as Star Wars character Darth Vader in 2011 for Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), which is not airing a spot this year.

"The price tag keeps going up. It's not an easy decision now for big brands," he said.  — Reuters